(GOLDEN COCKEREL PRESS.) The Four Gospels of the Lord Jesus Christ according to the authorized version of King James I. 18-point Golden Cockerel Face type. 65 wood-engraved illustrations by Eric Gill, including 4 full-page plates. Folio, publisher's gilt-lettered 1/4 white pigskin over tan buckram, bound by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, some natural discoloration along spine affecting lettering and bands, the "h" in "The" is slightly battered at the top right serif; original slipcase. (Waltham St. Lawrence), 1931

Estimate $10,000 - 15,000

number 481 of 500 copiesof one of the most important fine press books produced in the 20th century. This edition of the Four Gospels set in the text of the King James Gospels is a masterly example of book design. Gill integrated the text and illustrations into a modern homage to the tradition of illuminated manuscript. "Conceived in the fruitful mind of Robert Gibbings, this is the Golden Cockerel book usually compared with the Doves Bible and the Kelmscott Chaucer. A flower among the best products of English romantic genius, it is also surely, thanks to its illustrator, Eric Gill, the book among all books in which Roman type has been best mated with any kind of illustration"--Chanticleer 78; From Manet to Hockney 89; E.R. Gill, Eric Gill, 285.with--A Typographical Masterpiece: An Account by John Dreyfus of Eric Gill's Collaboration with Robert Gibbings in producing the Golden Cockerel Press edition of "The Four Gospels" in 1931. Illustrated. Folio, cloth; dust jacket. One of 250 unnumbered copies. London: Bain & Williams, Ltd., 1991.